WAUSAU - An unlicensed daycare operator had been investigated at least three times for child abuse before she was charged Wednesday with two counts of intentionally causing great bodily harm to a toddler, the Wausau Daily Herald has learned.

According to police and court records, two children were seriously injured and sustained brain bleeds while in the care of 28-year-old Wausau woman Merisa M. Sell in 2015 and 2018. Sell ran an unlicensed child care service out of her Stark Street home called Merisa's Stepping Stones Daycare and has previously been fired from two other daycare facilities, according to reports.

On Aug. 7, 2018, Sell called 911 to report that a 16-month-old girl she was caring for was acting "really off," according to police reports. Doctors at Aspirus Wausau Hospital and Marshfield Medical Center determined the girl had a brain bleed, the report states.

Sell told police the toddler slid out of her high chair and choked on her lunch of hot dogs and asparagus. She said that she turned her back for a few seconds while doing something else, the report said, and the girl had fallen to the ground and landed on her butt. At that point, the girl was having trouble breathing, so Sell called 911, the report said.

Sell was able to clear the girl's airway, and when Wausau Fire and Ambulance officials arrived, they contacted the girl's mother, who chose to not have the child taken to a hospital. The mother told officers that she would keep an eye on the girl and watch in case of worsening symptoms, the report said.

Later that night, the girl's condition had not improved, and she was taken to Aspirus Hospital where doctors discovered the brain bleed, according to the report.

On Aug. 20, a Marathon County social worker told Wausau Police investigators that Sell was involved in two other child abuse cases at Merisa's Stepping Stones, the report said. Officers also talked to the injured 16-month-old child's parents, who said that they had been taking the child to the daycare since the last week of May. The social worker informed the child's parents that Sell was not licensed or certified, to which the parents expressed frustration, the report said.

On Sept. 12, police continued the investigation, talking to Sell's 7-year-old son and 4-year-old daughter, the report said. The boy told investigators that his mother told him and his sister that if they were asked about seeing anything that happened with the 16-month-old girl, they should say they didn't know. On the same day, the report said, Sell informed police that she was closing her daycare to go back to work.

On Sept. 14, the police department added to the investigation information from a doctor familiar with the 16-month-old's case. The doctor said that the girl was found to have a swollen lip, injuries to the inside of her mouth, and bruises on her left cheek and around her mouth and along her jaw, according to the report. The doctor told police that the injuries were highly suggestive of physical abuse and that the brain bleed implied rapid front to back rotations of the head.

Sell was also investigated in 2015 after a child in her care was admitted to the hospital with a brain bleed.

In that case, a 4-month-old boy was brought to Aspirus Wausau Hospital in June 2015 after he experienced a seizure while at Sell's daycare. Doctors found the infant had a brain bleed.

When police interviewed Sell, she told them that the seizure occurred because another child had shaken the infant while he was sitting in a Jumparoo — a bouncy swing toy for babies — days earlier, according to reports. A doctor told investigators that evidence indicated that the trauma likely occurred at the daycare and that the seizure would have occurred abruptly after the injury, not days later, and that a seizure would not have caused the brain bleed.

Two days later on June 24, 2015, Sell told investigators that she is not licensed through the state and is not certified as a daycare provider in Marathon County. She also told investigators that she had been fired from two daycare providers in the Wausau area. On July 15, 2015, police served Sell with a search warrant and took the jumper seat, Sell's cell phone and a composition notebook with handwritten notes regarding the daycare.

On May 17, 2016, the Wausau Police Department referred Sell to the Marathon County District Attorney's Office for charges of child abuse, but Assistant DA Chad Minder found insufficient evidence for prosecution at the time and the case was marked as inactive, according to police reports.

Additionally, Sell was investigated in 2017 after the mother of a boy at Sell's daycare called police and reported her son had fresh fingerprints on his upper thigh, near his groin. The mother told police that the boy had been going to Sell's daycare for about two weeks and that she thought maybe Sell hit the boy because he soiled himself. No charges have been brought against Sell in connection with that incident.

A warrant was issued for Sell's arrest on the two counts of child abuse on Wednesday. According to Marathon County Jail logs, she was not yet in custody. Sell faces up to 40 years in prison on each child abuse count.